Large panels are used in the fabrication of furniture such as the making of a work top for a table or desk. The panels are usually made of wood fibres compressed and impregnated in a binding mixture and covered on its top surface with a durable plastic laminate to provide a hard finish. The edge of such panels is necessarily and commonly provided with a relatively malleable edge covering in order to provide an aesthetic finish as well as a protective bumper for preventing damages to the edge by accidental impact with other furniture or hard objects. The edge covering is either a flat strip edge banding or an edge banding T-molding. The flat strip edge banding is an elongated flat strip of flexible plastic made of polyvinyl chloride, commonly known as PVC. The edge banding strip is supplied in a coiled condition for the fabrication of the work top, and it is uncoiled and attached to the edge of the work top with either an adhesive applied to the edge banding strip at the time of affixing it to the edge of the work top, or the adhesive pre-applied on the flat strip edge banding and/or on the edge of the work top. Such flat strip edge banding is awkward, messy and time consuming to affix onto the edge of the work top, since it must be mechanically maintained in an intimate contact with the latter while the adhesive is setting, otherwise the elasticity of the originally coiled edge banding would cause it to disengage from the edge of the work top. Such problem occurs even more readily if the edge of the work top has a sharp curvature or bend. Thus, when the edge banding is bent to conform with such sharp curvature of the edge of the table top, the inherent reactive bending force in the originally coiled edge banding would tend to return it to its original condition; and such reactive force would tend to force the edge banding to disengage with the edge of the work top if banding is not additionally and mechanically maintained mounted in place while the adhesive is setting. Furthermore, the banding could separate from the edge when the adhesive naturally deteriorates over time. The separation is also accelerated by the vapour and chemical gas emitted from the compressed fibre material in the work top panel as well as from the PVC material of the edge banding. The vapour and gas emissions augment the reactive elastic force of the edge banding to cause it to separate from the edge of the work top.
The above drawbacks have been alleviated by edge banding T-molding which is a flexible PVC edge banding having a barbed mounting strip provided on its rear face over its entire length thereof such that it has a T-shaped cross section. It is mounted to the edge of the table top by first pre-forming a mounting groove in the edge of the table top; and the T-molding is mounted to the edge of the table top by merely engaging its barbed mounting strip snugly with the mounting groove. Such edge banding T-molding normally has a rounded front face to provide the aesthetic and bumper functions required to prevent the table edge from being damaged when it is accidentally struck by another object. However, when the barbed mounting strip is inserted into the mounting groove, it inherently exerts either a pulling or pushing force on the molding depending on whether they are tightly or loosely fitted together; and due to the flexibility of the PVC material, the pulling or pushing force causes an unsightly deformation ridge or deformation groove or a series of sink marks or dents or discoloration to form on the front face of the edge banding T-molding directly opposite to the mounting strip. The formation of the deformation ridge or sink marks or dents or discoloration is particularly severe for a table top having an undulate and/or sharp edge curvature so that the mounting force between the mounting strip of the edge banding T-molding and the groove in the edge of the table top is often uneven throughout the length of the edge banding T-molding.